“In
the face of this year's wheat crop losses, and worries over the impact on
prices for consumers, this breakthrough in our understanding of the bread wheat
genome could not have come at a better time. This modern strategy is a key
component to supporting food security and gives breeders the tools to produce
more robust varieties with higher yields”
BBSRC (Biotechnology
and Biological Sciences Research Council) Chief Executive Professor Douglas
Kell of the University of Liverpool on the decoding of the Chinese Spring Wheat
(Triticum aestivum L.)Genome
After
nearly four (4) years of Research a Team at BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council) led by Professor Douglas Kell of the University of
Liverpool and has finally cracked the
Bread Wheat Genome as reported in “Genetic
blueprint for wheat deciphered”, published Saturday, July 19, 2014, The Jamaica Observer.
The
Bread Wheat, also known as the Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), has a Genome
that consists of some 20 Chromosomes located inside of the nucleus of each cell.
These Chromosomes which are composed of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) are in turn
composed of sequences of three bases composed of combinations of Adenine (A),
Guanine (G), Cytosine (C) or Thiamine (T) called Codons.
Each
Codon represents an Amino Acid that makes up a protein molecule and specific
sequences of Codons representing a Protein are called Genes. Amazingly, for
such a simple organism, the Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has a Genome that’s five (5) times the size
of the Human Genome, due to the fact that it’s a grass that was bred by humans
to be edible by cross-breeding with other edible grasses.
According
to their publication in the Journal Nature, there is a total of 124,000 Genes,
representing 124,000 proteins that were located by the BBSRC Team, but only
90,000 of those Genes were sequence:
1.
The positions of the Codons within the
DNA worked out
2.
Proteins that these Genes produce
3.
Genotype (Genetic characteristics) and
Phenotype (Physical characteristics) they represent
The
Genome Sequencing Study was led by Professor Douglas Kell of the University of
Liverpool and co-authored by Dr Anthony Hall, from the University Institute of
Integrative Biology. It coincides rather neatly with a French Research Team
announcing recently they'd mapped a complete Bread Wheat Chromosome, known as
3B. This leaves that Research Team
with a long journey ahead of them, as they have some 20 more Chromosomes to
decipher in order to completely decode the Genome of Bread Wheat.
Their
four year quest was funded by the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council) of which Professor Douglas Kell of the University of
Liverpool is Chief Executive. His team pooled their efforts and resources with
the following Universities and Institutes:
1. Institute
of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology in Germany
2. Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory in the USA
3. University
of California in the USA
4. University
of Bristol in the UK
5. University
Institute of Integrative Biology in the UK
Researchers
focused on a cultivated wheat variety known as Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and have decoded
90,000 of the 124,000 Genes that make up the Wheat Genome. This, published in
the Journal Nature, is a landmark discovery and is of greatest significance to
the Agriculture Sciences World as Wheat is the World's third biggest crop after
maize and rice.
Professor Kell’s Wheat –
Started from the Bottom of the Wheat Field Now we here
Four
years?
Back
in 2010, Professor Douglas Kell of the University of Liverpool, who was then
head of the Britain's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
(BBSRC) announced they’re cracked the Wheat Genome as stated in “Scientists:
We've Cracked Wheat's Genetic Code”, published Aug. 27, 2010 | 11:08 a.m. EDT, Associated Press.
Back
then, I was so impressed by the news that I’d done a pair of articles
predicting how it would revolutionize the development of GM (Genetic Modified)
Foods by making Wheat more Drought resistant as stated in my blog article
entitled “Wheat
Genome Cracked - Nature Valley vs the Island of Dr. Moreau” and “Wheat
Genome Cracked - GM for US and Jamaica's Agriculture Revitalization”.
I
suspect that this discovery differs because of the variety of Wheat whose Genome
was sequenced, that being the Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Additionally, it’s also the method used to
sequence the Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) Genome.
So
how did they do it?
They
realized that the different families of Wheat were related to each other and to
similar Food Grasses with simpler Genomes such as Rice and Barley and some of
its ancestors, which had long ago been decoded using conventional Genome Sequencing
Methods as explained in “Scientists
decipher Genetic code of wheat” published 28 November 2012, ScienceDaily.
The
Team hypothesized that the more advanced Grasses such as Wheat not only were
complex and thus had more Genomes, but shared the same Chromosomes and even
Genes with these predecessors to who them they were related but just happened
to still be around. Evolution mean that they're all related, just slightly
differentiated from their common Grass Ancestor.
Knowing
the complete Genome of those Grasses, they simply just used a special algorithm
developed by the John Innes Centre to do a count of the total number of Chromosomes
in each Genome and the location of the Genes within each Chromosome. Then
they’d look for Genetic markers that were similar for each Gene making up the Chromosome
within the Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) Genome to those in Rice and Barley and earlier grasses.
They
did the comparison against Genome Databases provided by the Institute of
Bioinformatics and Systems Biology in Germany and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
and the University of California in the US. The unidentified Chromosomes within
the Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Genome
was then sequenced using the conventional Genome Sequencing methods, thus
greatly speeding up the process.
Chinese Spring Wheat
Genome – Jacob’s Ladder Sequencing of Complex Plants
Think
of it like designing a smartphone or an Aeroplane, both fields with which I'm
all too familiar being as I'd made design improvements to the Twin-Engine
Airbus E-Fan All-Electric Airplane as detailed in my blog article
entitled “Airbus
Group and the E-Fan – EU's Flightpath 2050 heralds All-Electric Aircraft as
Fischer–Tropsch Process makes Kerosene Renewable”.
Because
many persons have done it before, you don't need to start from ground zero and
design the smartphone or airplane; you just use the blueprints for a simpler
model and add to the design, as Airbus had done. Simple as that!
By
identifying the differences in the Genomes of Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to that Rice and
Barley and some of its ancestors, they were able to not only quickly sequence
the complex Wheat Genome, but separate the known Genes within the Chromosomes
and determine the Genes and their known genotype and phenotype. Thus, their map
wasn’t just a listing of Genomes for the purpose of bragging of the academic
triumph of sequencing a plant that was heretofore difficult. It had straight-out-the-Lab practical
applications to Crop Breeders as well.
They
could use the information to identify features of other hardier Grasses and
thus cross-breed them with the Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), either in the field over several Generations
or via companies using Laboratory techniques to create the desired traits
required to make Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) more suited to surviving various environments.
This
technique can lead to the sequencing of even more complex Grasses, such as
Sugar Cane, as suggested by the rather upbeat Professor Neil Hall from the
University's Institute of Integrative Biology, who apparently is trying to get
a photo-op here, quote: “Wheat is a large and complex genome; arguably the most
complex genome to be sequenced to date. Although the genome has not been fully
decoded, we now have instrumentation that can read DNA hundreds of times faster
than the systems that were used to sequence the human genome. This technology
can now be applied to other Genomes previously considered to be too difficult
for detailed Genetic study, such as sugar cane, an important biofuel crop”.
That
means in the near future, companies that specialize in making GMO (Generically
Modified Organisms) from this information such as Monsanto, can make varieties
of Chinese Spring Wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) that can grow in virtual any climate Region of the World under
various conditions i.e. high Temperature, extreme dryness, extreme sunlight,
etc.
Possessing
this knowledge also means that we can a means of staving off Global Hunger by
being able to produce varieties of a plant that's a staple of 30% of the World's
population. It's also used to make the most common of foods, that being Flour,
which is used to make Bread and thus is literally our #BreadandButter. Its
significance wasn’t lost upon co-chair of the IWGSC (International Wheat Genome
Sequencing Consortium) Catherine Feuillet, quote: “We have reached a great
milestone in our roadmap”.
With
our World population projected to reach some 9 billion by 2050. Wheat
Production has been falling globally by some 5.5% from 2000 to 2008 due to
Climate Change, according to a study in the journal Science by researchers at
the IWGSC. Having the ability to modify
wheat to grow anywhere, even in the Desert, will be a priority going forward!
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